MLB: Phillies nip Nationals

By DENNIS DEITCH, 21st Century Media

Thursday, July 11, 2013

PHILADELPHIA — Series wins. That is what the Phillies are trying to accrue in July.

So far, they are 3-for-3 in that department, the latest coming as Kyle Kendrick outdueled All-Star Jordan Zimmermann and overcome four errors by his teammates to give the Phils a 3-1 win over the Nationals Thursday night and a 3-1 series victory over a team sitting 1 ½ games in front of them.

That is three straight winning series — the first time this season the Phils have accomplished that — against three teams above .500 in the standings. Wins count just the same regardless of the opponent, but if anyone in the clubhouse or in the front office wanted to see the Phillies show some quality play against teams of quality, that is what they got.

“We’re a good team, too,” Kevin Frandsen said after delivering another big pinch-hit in the seventh inning to put the Phillies up 2-1. “The Braves are a good team, the Nationals are a good team, but we’re a good team, too. Good record or not, we have a lot of accomplished guys here. We have a lot of young, hungry guys, too. They are coming in – Darin (Ruf) had two not-so-good at-bats (strikeouts against Zimmermann) to start, and what does he do? He leads off that (seventh) inning with a double.

“That was a huge opportunity, and he did it.”

After Ruf led off the seventh with his hit, John McDonald replaced him as a pinch-runner, moving to third on Carlos Ruiz’s sacrifice bunt. That gave Frandsen a shot, and after lining a two-strike pitch from Zimmermann just out of the reach of Washington center fielder Denard Span, he rolled into second and slapped his hands together. That raised his average as a pinch-hitter to .355 (11-for-31), and into sole possession of the major-league lead in pinch hits.

That will earn a guy a reputation — and Frandsen wants that role to continue with the Phillies. The truth is, if the Phils fell out of contention, the infielder’s ability to get a knock off the bench (and do so cheaply) would be attractive to contenders.

“The Phillies are the only ones who have given me a chance to play,” Frandsen said. “So I’m going to put my heart and soul into that … I just think we’re starting to click, and have breaks go our way.”

They got a few breaks, one from an umpire and more than one from Kendrick.

The umpire’s assist came in the first inning when Bryce Harper rolled around third base and headed home on a Jayson Werth single to left. Dom Brown backhanded the ball and came up firing a one-hop strike to the plate. However, replays showed that Harper’s slide was even better that Brown’s throw and beat the tag.

Oops, plate umpire Kerwin Danley didn’t see it that way. Harper was called out.

Kendrick, meanwhile, didn’t let some extra outs and bases given to the Nats by his fielders get in the way of his pitching. Chase Utley made a career-high three gaffes — one crashing into Ruf on a foul pop, two others when he first booted a grounder, then made an errant throw after gathering it.

Kendrick worked through those issues, as the only run the Nats got came after Harper tripled to right and scored on Werth’s sacrifice fly to knot it, 1-1. The right-hander allowed one run over seven innings, bouncing back from a pair of shaky starts in which he allowed 10 runs over 11 innings.

“We all go through some rough patches through the year. I feel like I’ve had some before the break in the past,” said Kendrick, who is 8-6 with a 3.75 ERA entering the break. “I was able to bounce back tonight. Against their guy tonight, top of the league, I knew it was going to be close. We got some big runs when we needed to.”

Frandsen pushed across the go-ahead run, and Utley atoned for his fielding misadventures with a great slide at the plate on a play against a drawn-in infield following his leadoff double in the eighth.

“He lets that roll off,” Manuel said of Utley’s errors. “If you put forth the effort, mistakes are going to be made. That slides right by, and you make sure you catch the next ball.”

The Phillies (46-47) will have to outplay Washington (47-45) in the final three months if they want to send the Nats back to watching the postseason on television after they ended the Phils’ five-year reign as National League East champions last season.

It will take even more than that to catch the Braves, or the Reds, or the Pirates, or some combination of those teams if the Phils want to reverse what so many considered an inevitable downward spiral when they had to rally for a .500 record in 2012.

However, there is an easy way to ensure your team wins enough to punch an October – keep winning series.

“Any win is a good win,” Frandsen said, “but to get it against a shut-down guy like (Zimmermann), especially with them trying to even up the series was big.”